Overview
- The National Crime Agency led a raid on farmland near Furnace End that uncovered a methamphetamine production lab and led to five arrests.
- The suspects, who were arrested on August 13, have been charged with conspiracy to produce methamphetamine and were remanded ahead of a hearing at Warwickshire Crown Court on September 10.
- The defendants are named as Alejandro Ambriz Dimas, Victor Ramirez, Fausto Beltran, Lioncio Moso Borja and Jose Nunez Angolo, and the NCA says four are from Culiacan in Sinaloa while Dimas is from Michoacan.
- Police images of the site show at least three gas canisters, large plastic tubs and containers linked by metal tubing, and the raid involved Warwickshire Police, West Midlands Fire Service and West Midlands Ambulance Service because of explosion and poisoning risks.
- The NCA-led multiagency investigation remains active and will determine criminal liability through the courts while reports note that large-scale meth production is rare in Britain and that suspects' reported origins do not by themselves prove links to foreign crime groups.